9 Months Old

Avocado is yummy!

9 Month Stats:

Age:  9 months

Weight:  21 lbs. (85^th %)

Height:  29” (92^nd %)

Favorite toy:  Fisher Price laptop

Favorite toy that’s not a toy:  iPod, cell phone, electric cords

New foods:  yogurt, yellow squash, asparagus, chicken

Favorite food:  avocado, butternut squash, or cinnamon rice cereal

Least favorite food:  yellow squash

Number of teeth:  8

Makes her smile:  when her Daddy gets home from work, when he makes faces at her, or when he dances silly to her Elmo boom box

Makes her laugh: saying “woah, woah, wooooaaaah!” while acting like you’re dropping her

Makes her cry:  slamming her finger in a door, falling over while sitting

Favorite place to be: worming her way across the floor towards something she wants (especially if what she wants is Dixie)

Can say:  “Gaga”

Milestones: worming her way across the house, sitting up on her own, slept through the night 

Clothing size: 12- 18 months

Clapping her hands, excited to know how to sit up!

Worming, Sitting, & Spinning

At the beginning of the month, Payton learned to “crawl” on her stomach.  Basically she looks like an inch worm.  She does a push up and then scoots her body forward, landing on her chest/stomach.  At first she would only worm her way across the room if there was  something she really wanted to get to, like a cell phone or TV remote control.  But by the end of the month, she was scooting herself all over the house.  In fact, she started worming herself around so much that she developed blisters on both of her feet!

The day before Payton turned 9 months old she learned to go from her stomach to a sitting position on her own.  She was so proud of herself to have learned this new trick and each time she would sit herself up she would get a smile on her face and shriek with joy. 

Another thing Payton learned this month is that, in addition to jumping in her Jenny Jump Up, it is also fun to spin around in circles in it.  It makes me dizzy just to watch but she seems to enjoy doing it.  Mary (Charles’ sister) and Lil’ Evan (his nephew) came to visit from Thibodaux, Louisiana and they really got a kick out of watching Payton spin herself around in her Jenny Jump Up. 

"Little Evan", Payton, and Charles

Finger Foods

A big development for Payton this month was that she learned to eat finger foods.  At the end of her 8^th month we had tried giving her sweet potato fries but she didn’t seem to know what to do with them.  The first week of her 9^th month Payton had success eating a soft, ripe pear.  She soon also learned to enjoy sweet potato fries, soft ripe peaches, chunks of banana, soft steamed vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and asparagus, and very small pieces of chicken.  We still feed her purees twice a day but while we are eating our dinner, we give Payton finger foods to keep her occupied.  As a special treat when we go out to eat, we’ve shared our French fries with her and she really gets excited about those!

Payton and Hank

"Going to Grandma’s"

Payton and I spent a week at my parent’s house the last week of June.  When going out of town, Payton still refuses to nurse on the road and fights sleeping in the car.  So when we got to my parent’s house, she was extremely hungry and overly tired.  But she also tends to refuse to nurse or sleep when she arrives in a new location.  So for the first evening there, she was a cranky mess until she settled down and fell asleep.  The rest of the time there she did fine, although she was showing some signs of separation anxiety.

My brother Albert and his wife Erin and son Hank also spent the weekend there.  Payton is still bigger and taller than Hank, who is 2 ½ weeks older than she is.  But whereas Payton was struggling to scoot across the floor, Hank could crawl quickly, pull himself up on anything, and walk while holding onto furniture.  Pretty big differences for cousins so close in age!

Cute cousins!

During the week visit, Payton learned to walk in a baby walker.  We don’t have one at home so she has never had experience using a baby walker.  At first she kept trying to jump up and down in it because that’s what she does in her Exersaucer at home, but she soon learned not only how to walk across the room using it, but even how to run and make turns in it! 

My parents live out in the country (on Lake LBJ) and one morning we woke up to discover there was a newborn baby fawn right up against the back porch.  All day long we looked out at the fawn and we worried about it.  Even though the fawn was in the shade, it was still hot out and we couldn’t imagine it would be normal for a newborn to go so long without nursing.  We were pretty concerned that the mother wouldn’t come back for it, being that it was so close to people (and with all of us over to visit, there were even more people coming and going from the house than normal).  But as dusk approached, we watched as the mother deer stood from a distance, seeming to look for her baby.  And before too long, the mother deer came close enough to the baby that the baby ran to her.  The fawn nursed for a minute and then the two left together.  It was such an amazing thing to witness!

During our week at my parent’s, Payton enjoyed swimming in a baby pool in the backyard and going out to eat each day for lunch.

Payton and my parent's dog "Baby"

The 4^th of July

The 4^th of July is my favorite holiday.  I love everything about this holiday: it’s in the summer, the long days this time of year, swimming in warm water, the delicious summer foods, getting together with family and friends, and of course, the fireworks.  This year we didn’t get to spend it with family or friends but I did get to spend it with my two favorite people: Charles and Payton.  The day started with me dressing Payton in a cute red, white, and blue dress that her Aunt Debbie gave to her and then going to the San Luis Hotel to take her picture.  I knew the San Luis has lots of green grass and pretty landscaping so I figured it would be a nice place to take pictures.  Even though it was only 8:00 a.m. it was already so hot and the sun was shining in her eyes, but I still got a couple of cute pictures.  

Happy 4th of July!

 That afternoon we went to The Spot for hamburgers.  It was fun to see all the children and adults out enjoying lunch with their families, wearing their red, white, and blues.  For dinner Charles BBQed.

Payton went to bed for the night at her usual bedtime, around 7:00 p.m.  Charles and I took turns walking out to Seawall to check out the scene.  There were SO many people here this year.  The entire state of Texas is in the worst drought in recorded history and so many towns, Austin included, had to cancel their firework shows.  As a result, towns that were able to still have their fireworks like Galveston, had larger than normal crowds.  We watched the firework show from our front porch and Payton slept right through both the loud booming of the fireworks, the car alarms that were set off from the fireworks, and our dog Haven getting scared from the fireworks and scratching on her door, trying to force his way into her room.  Maybe next year she’ll be able to stay up and watch the fireworks show, but this year I was thankful she was able to sleep through them.

Licking LaLa's wall to see if it taste different than the walls at her house.

Sleep

Up until the week at my parent’s house, Payton was nursing once in the middle of the night, sometimes not nursing until 4-5 a.m.  During the week at my parent’s house, she was waking to nurse a couple of times during the night.  I think this was a combination of not nursing as much as normal during the day (too many distractions) and also needing to be comforted when waking up in a crib that isn’t her own.  Just a little over a week later (the week before she turned 9 months old), Payton slept through the night for the first time.  She went to sleep around 7:30 p.m. and slept until 7:30 a.m., only needing her pacifier put back in at 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.  So she slept eight hours straight between her pacifier wake-ups.  From that night on, she has needed her pacifier put back in on occasion but she has not once needed to nurse in the middle of the night.  She nurses right before going to sleep for the night, around 7:00 p.m., and when she gets up in the morning, generally around 7:00 a.m.

In her crib-- just woke up

 Another big development on the topic of sleep is that Payton has started taking her naps in her crib instead of in her baby swing.  The week Payton turned 9 months old, I decided that she was getting entirely too big for her baby swing and that it would be a good time to transition her to taking naps in her crib.  She’s always done a good job of sleeping in her crib at night but she seemed to need the motion of the swing to put her to sleep during the day.  The first couple of days of napping in her crib, she would only nap about 30 minutes and then would wake up and not go back to sleep.  But by the third day, she was taking 1 ½ hour naps twice a day in her crib without any real trouble.  I’m so relieved to finally have her napping in her crib instead of her swing.

Spending time with her grandfather

 9 Month Doctor’s Appointment

At Payton’s 9 month check-up we found out that she’s still pretty big for her age (not surprising).  She is 29” tall (92^nd percentile), weighs 21 lbs (85^th percentile), and has a head circumference of 45.5 cm (88^th percentile).  Again she scored low or borderline low on all milestones except for problem solving, in which she scored high.  The doctor recommended that we contact Early Childhood Interventions to have her screened to see if she would benefit from any of their services.  Luckily, just three days after her appointment, Payton started doing things like pulling herself up to a standing position and being able to pick up small objects with her fingers.  So basically, in a matter of just a few days, she seems to have really caught up on her gross motor skills and fine motor skill milestones.  It almost seems like each time the doctor says she is behind, she quickly plays catch up. 

We again discussed her risk of having a food allergy since Charles has a food allergy and she gave me the go ahead to start feeding her most foods.  She told me to wait until a year to give her eggs and cow’s milk.  And she said as far as nuts or peanuts go, to wait until she is 4-5 years old before trying to introduce them.  The doctor also said at 2 years old she can have allergy tests done to determine if she may be allergic to them.

Wow, look how tall!

 Everything is big on Payton except for what the doctor said are unusually small ear canals.  Just like at her 6 month appointment, the doctor again couldn’t see the ear drum in her left ear because of wax in her very small ear canal.  Payton again scored borderline low on her communication milestones.  Although she can now say, “Mamama”, she isn’t babbling much and doesn’t attempt to repeat consonants sounds.   Because the doctor still couldn’t see the ear drum and she is still behind on her verbal milestones, the doctor felt it would be best to have her hearing checked to make sure everything is okay.  We can tell for sure that she does hear, but we needed to be sure that she can hear clearly and that her hearing isn’t the cause of her delayed speech. 

Payton loves the beach!

Audiology/ ENT

So the following week I took Payton to UTMB hospital to the pediatric audiology department to have her hearing checked.  Two tests were performed on Payton.  The first was a sensor that they put in her ear that determines in she has fluid behind her ear drums.  The sensor indicated that she does have fluid behind both ear drums.  The second test that was performed was a hearing test.  They had Payton sit in my lap in the middle of a small sound-proof room.  On either side of us was a speaker with a dark box above it.  The doctor sat in a separate room in front of us behind a dark see-through window.  The doctor would push a button that would make a sound effect in one of the speakers (they sounded just like the sound effects they use for adult hearing tests).  If Payton turned to look in the direction of the sound, then as a reward the dark box would light up and inside would be a stuffed animal playing the drums.  It reminded me of a mini-sized Chucky Cheese Pizza show.  Payton enjoyed the test and overall did well.  They determined that her hearing is in the normal range.  

Beautiful eyes :)

 From there we were referred to an ENT to discuss the fluid behind her ear drums.  We went to the appointment the following week and since my parents were in town, my mom came with us.  The doctor there also confirmed that Payton has very small ear canals and that she couldn’t see her ear drum because of the wax.  The doctor was able to use a curette to remove the wax while a nurse held Payton’s head still, I held her arms down, and my mom held her legs.  Payton screamed and was upset, not because the doctor was hurting her, but because she didn’t like being held down.  The doctor was pretty funny…. She got really excited when she got all the wax out and then kept bragging to other people in the office, “Only 9 months old and she had the wax removed from her ears! Take her picture and put it on the wall!”  Other than removing the wax, the ENT confirmed that she has fluid behind both ear drums.  She feels like since Payton failed her newborn hearing test twice, she may have been born with this fluid behind her ear drums and for whatever reason it’s still there.  She also feels that the fluid behind the ear drums may be why she’s having some speech delays since it can cause sounds to be muffled.  The doctor’s decision is to have us wait two month and then follow up with another appointment with audiology.  If at that time Payton still has fluid behind her ear drums and is still showing signs of speech delay, we will need to discuss having tubes put in her ears to drain the fluid.  We are definitely hoping in the meantime that things clear themselves up on their own.

Teething rings are yummy

 Despite fluid behind the ear drums, Payton is a happy and healthy 9 month old who is growing and changing every single day.  She has been smiling and laughing more than she ever has and is a joy to be around!

Bye for now!

8 Months Old

Payton Ashley- 7 months old

 8 Month Stats:

Age:  8 months

Weight:  estimated about 20 pounds still

Height:  not sure, but she is very tall

Favorite toy:  Fisher Price lap top and all books

New foods:  broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, pears, peaches, cinnamon, oatmeal, sweet potato fries

Favorite food:  avocado

Least favorite food:  apple or brocolli

Number of teeth:  8!!!!

Makes her smile:  when her Daddy gets home from work or makes faces at her from across the room

Makes her laugh: just a few random laughs lately

Makes her cry: teething pain

Favorite place to be: rolling around on the ground, being carried

Can say:  no new words

Milestones:  scooting herself across the floor backwards and a little bit forwards, clapping her hands, tries to use my shirt to pull herself to a standing position, stands on her own while holding onto furniture (doesn’t pull herself up yet)

Clothing size: 12- 18 months

Smiling for the camera

Teeth

Payton’s 8^th month started out a bit painful.  In a period of 1 ½ weeks she went from having 2 teeth to having 6.  Then a week later she got her 7^th and 8^th teeth.  So now she has four on top and four on bottom.  8 teeth before she even turned 8 months old!  She was pretty fussy for about a week as all of those teeth were coming in.  Tylenol and Orajel do seem to offer her some relief.  The Tylenol also seems to make her sleepy which isn’t a bad thing when she’s hurting.

Payton has lots of toys that she enjoys playing with.

So cute! :)

Swimming

In mid-May we started taking Payton to the beach to go swimming.  She likes to sit where the waves are rolling in, observe all that is around her, and occasionally splash her hands in the water.  She seems to really enjoy the water and isn’t upset even when a larger wave splashes her in the face.  Payton also likes trying to eat sand and likes to play under the shade of a beach umbrella.  We also bought an inflatable baby pool for the backyard.  In the baby pool she enjoys playing with (chewing on) her bath toys.  I sit in the baby pool with her because she sometimes tries to take a nose dive into the water.  Other than swimming, there are not a lot of outdoor activities that Payton can participate in because it has just gotten too hot.  We tried to take Payton to the park (Castle/Schrieber Park) but it was so hot, there was very little shade, and there wasn’t much there that Payton could play with.  We do occasionally sit on our front porch because it’s in the shade most of the day and being two blocks from the Gulf it generally has a nice (though warm) breeze. 

Payton and Mommy at the beach.

Payton loves the water.

 Moving Around/ Playing

At the beginning of Payton’s 7^th month she learned how to roll across the room.  She then learned how to rotate herself 360 degrees on her stomach and learned to scoot herself backwards.  By the end of the month, Payton discovered that she can hold toys with her feet while lying on her back.  This has become one of her new favorite games.  It’s like she has 4 hands to use to play with her toys.  It’s very funny and she’s actually quite good at it!  If you stand Payton up and place her where she can hold onto something (like a chair) she can stand a few seconds on her own.  She’s also started showing signs of trying to grab a hold of my shirt to pull herself up.  One day before turning 8 months old, Payton learned to clap her hands.  She doesn’t do it on command or for any reason that we can tell…. She just claps when she feels like it.

Daddy and Payton playing on the beach.

Playing in the baby pool in our backyard.

Growing Fast!

I’m not sure how tall Payton is or really how much she weighs (though we estimate about 20 pounds when putting her on our adult scale), but I do know she is growing at a fast rate right now!  Near the beginning of May she started wearing 9-12 month clothes and less than 3 weeks later many of them were already too small and she started wearing 12-18 month clothes!  It’s amazing to me that my 7 ½ month old is wearing 18 month clothes!  I wonder if she will always be tall for her age?  Right now she is definitely taking after Charles when it comes to her size.

8 months old and in 18 month sized clothes!

Payton having fun with her Aunt Debbie

Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend Charles’ sister Debbie came to visit from Charlotte, North Carolina, and his mom, grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousins came to visit from Dallas, Houston, and the Woodlands.  It was very fun to be able to see everyone and spend time with them.  Payton especially loves her Aunt Debbie, who is wonderful with babies.  We went out to eat several times and spent time at Charles’ cousin’s house on a canal on Galveston Bay in celebration of his cousin Briana’s high school graduation.  

Daddy and Payton having fun in their Mickey Mouse hats.

Payton and cousin Nate, reaching for each other.

Eating

Payton still nurses around 6-7 times in a 24 hour period and eats two meals of solid food a day.  Payton didn’t seem to care for broccoli, baked potato, or peaches.  She does seem to like carrots, pears, oatmeal, cauliflower, and cinnamon.  Right before Payton turned 8 months old we decided that since she has 8 teeth that we should start giving her some finger foods to try to eat on her own.  Up until that point, all the foods we’d given her were pureed.  So we tried baked sweet potato fries.  She played with them but didn’t seem to realize that she was supposed to eat them.  We will keep trying to offer her finger foods once a day.  Even if all she does is play with them, it at least allows us all to eat dinner together at the table.  She also learned to hold her own sippy cup when drinking water.

Payton and Daddy on the Bay

Nana, I love your bracelets!

Talking

Payton didn’t learn any new consonants this month.  She still just says “Mamama” and “Ahhhhh”, plus she shrieks really loud, especially when she’s excited about something.  At the beginning of June she started smacking her lips and two weeks later she started buzzing her tongue.  We used to call these “mouth farts” but now we’re not sure we want her learning the word “fart”.   Whatever they are called, they definitely make us laugh.  Especially when you say something like, “Awww, the baby is so tired” and in response she buzzes her tongue at you.

Nana, Grandma, Payton, and Debbie

Becky, Charles, and Payton on Galveston Bay

Payton showing signs of crawling at 8 months....

A few snippets of video with Miss P! First she shows you she's starting to crawl, then she attacks the camera, and finally a quick clap for you! The video is now hosted from youtube so you can watch in HD if you want by changing the "360" number at the bottom to "720p"!

7 Months Old

Think I’ll start something new and list some interesting stats about Payton each month.

So here are her 7 month stats:

• Age:  7 months, 1 week
• Weight:  probably about 20 pounds
• Height:  not sure
• Eye color:  still blue
• Hair color:  light brown with some areas really light and on top darker brown
• Favorite toy:  Fisher Price plastic stacking rings
• New foods:  avocado, banana, apple, sweet potato, baked potato, butternut squash
• Favorite food:  banana, rice cereal, or sweet potato
• Least favorite food:  apple
• Number of teeth:  3
• Makes her smile:  when you pretend she’s riding a horse on your knee or lifting her above your head
• Makes her laugh: wiping her mouth or singing the “Daddy wants to pick your nose” song (sung to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb")
• Makes her cry: being dried off after a bath, putting clothes on over her head
• Favorite place to be: playing in her exersaucer
• Can say:  lala, mama, ababa, ahhh
• Milestones:  rolling from back to tummy, sitting without falling over, eating new foods, sitting in shopping cart
• Clothing size: 9- 12 months

Payton on Easter morning--- in her bunny hat

Easter

Payton’s 7th month started with her first Easter.  We went to Dallas for Easter weekend to see Charles’ mom, grandmother, cousin T.J., and friends Lindy and Teresa.  Since Payton’s not old enough to hunt Easter eggs, dye eggs, or eat chocolate bunnies, we didn’t really engage in the usual Easter traditions.  Next year Easter will be especially fun when she is old enough to really participate and enjoy our family’s Easter activities.  Still, we had a very nice weekend and then spent Easter driving back to Galveston.

Payton and her great-grandmother "Grandma"

New Foods

The theme for the month are all the new foods that Payton has been eating.  I make all of her food homemade, except for her rice cereal.  This month she has had banana, avocado, sweet potato, baked potato, apple, and butternut squash.  We introduce one food to her at a time and then feed it to her for a minimum of 4 days before moving on to a new food to make sure she isn’t allergic to anything we’re giving her.  Charles has a severe tree nut allergy so as a result Payton has a 25% chance of also having a food allergy.  I’m just hoping and praying that she doesn’t have a food allergy as well.  We will definitely be holding off on introducing any highly allergic foods to her.  We aren’t even going to introduce peas just yet because her pediatrician said they can be closely related to peanuts and thus cause an allergic reaction in those with an allergy to them.

Payton opens wide for her food... she's a good little eater!

Payton loves eating solid foods and many times will say “Mmmmm” with each bite that you give her.  She opens her little mouth wide whenever she sees the spoon coming her direction.  Since she really loves eating, it’s hard to tell what her favorite food is.  But if I had to guess, she seems to get most excited over the rice cereal, banana, and sweet potato.  Her least favorite food so far seems to be apple.   She’ll eat it but often makes a face or gags a little.  And here I had been warned not to introduce sweet foods at first….  The apple is the sweetest food she’s getting and she’s not much of a fan.  This week we are introducing broccoli and carrots.  Foods that are not sweet at all so she should love them!

Not a fan of the sink bath!

Sleep

Payton still has yet to sleep through the night.  She tends to wake up a few times during the night wanting her pacifier back in her mouth.  During the day she can put it back in her mouth on her own but at night she just lays there and says, “Ah, ah, ah” until one of us comes and puts it back in.  She is also back to nursing once in the middle of the night, usually sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m..  I’m beginning to wonder if she will ever learn to sleep through the night!  LOL  I know there are plenty of people out there who would tell me to just let her cry herself back to sleep and let her learn to be independent.  But my feeling is, she is only 7 months old, God didn’t make infants to be independent.  That will come with time.  All babies eventually learn to sleep through the night and she will when she is ready.  Until then, I just try to enjoy our middle of the night quiet time together.  It certainly won’t last forever.  Also a cute note:  She has started sleeping on her side much of the time.  We lay her down on her back, put her pacifier in her mouth, and then she rolls over onto her side and goes to sleep.  I don’t know why but it’s the cutest thing!

Relaxing with her cousin Hank.

Mother’s Day

My first Mother’s Day was very nice.  My parents came to visit for the weekend and the weather was beautiful.  We went on the Galveston Historic Homes tour while Charles’ stayed home with Payton while she napped and it was really nice.  That Friday Payton learned her first word and guess what is was….  Mama!  So for the entire weekend she went around saying, “Mamama”.  Of course she doesn’t know what it means but it was still so cute!  For Mother’s Day Charles and Payton gave me a framed collage of Payton pictures with the title “1^st Mother’s Day” on it.  

My baby girl and I

 When I was a bratty little kid (I'm still bratty, just not a little kid anymore), on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day my brothers and I would say, “That’s not fair, when is Kid’s Day?” And my parents would respond with, “Every day is Kid’s Day!”   But now that I’m the parent I will respectfully disagree.  I absolutely love being a mother and wouldn’t want to trade places with Payton even if I could.  

Payton with Hank and Uncle Albert

Disrespect

The second weekend of May we went to my parent’s house to visit them as well as my brothers, sister-in-law, and nephew.  It was fun to have Payton and her cousin Hank together again.  They have both grown so much since they were last together in February!  Payton is definitely still bigger than Hank.  The two interacted quite a bit, trying to grab each other, trying to steal each other’s pacifiers, and playing with their toys.  The weather was beautiful so the babies also got to enjoy sometime on a blanket outside under my parent’s big pecan tree. At one point we were in the living room watching the babies and Albert said something to Erin and I.  No one seems to remember what Albert really said, but suddenly Charles, who was in the kitchen, said, “Did you just say Payton is disrespecting Hank?  She’d better not be disrespecting anyone!”   We had a good laugh and for the rest of the weekend if someone tried to steal someone else’s toy or touched someone who didn’t want to be touched, we reminded them not to disrespect each other.

Choking your cousin is a good example of disrespect.

Growing Fast!

Payton has always been a big baby but it seems like lately she has really shot up!  It seemed like she barely even wore her 6-9 month clothes before she was too big for them and wearing 9-12 month clothes.  Now she wears 12 month and even some 18 month clothes!  And she’s only a little over 7 months old.  I always thought if I had a girl she would be small like me and if I had a boy he would be big like Charles.  Somehow the idea that I might have a girl who took after Charles never really occurred to me so I still find it hard to believe I have a big baby girl.  It will be interesting to see if she’ll continue to be big for her age as she gets older.

What is that on your face, Uncle Kyle?

Keep rollin’, rollin’, rollin’, rollin’,  what?! (Okay, I admit, I still love Limp Bizkit)

The day after Payton turned 7 months old (May 16, 2011) she intentionally started rolling herself from her back to her tummy in order to prop herself up on her arms to play with her toys.  Before this she had a couple of times accidentally rolled onto her tummy but immediate rolled right back onto her back.  The following night this skill contributed to an incident in her crib.  What looks to have happened was that she was likely lying on her back with her legs sticking out through the slats when she decided to roll over onto her tummy.  She started screaming and I ran in to find her lying on her tummy with her legs stuck all the way through the crib slats at a funny angle.  For a minute my heart raced as I thought she might have really hurt herself!  But after getting her unstuck and nursing her, she fell right back asleep.  The next morning upon close inspection I couldn’t find even a bruise from the incident.  But I think we are still going to invest in the breathable bumpers just so I don’t have to worry about her getting herself stuck again.  Thanks to her nighttime (and daytime) practice, by the end of the week Payton was rolling herself clear across a room.

Playing on her tummy.

Half a year old!

As of last Friday, Payton is officially half a year old! It is hard to believe. The time has flown by and she has been growing up so quickly. This past weekend I was like, “Who are you and what have you done with my baby?” because she was smiling all the time, babbling, squealing, sitting up playing, standing with just me holding her hands, and she ate “solid” food for the first time. It’s incredible how much they develop in just 6 months!

The month started out with Payton discovering that she enjoyed playing in her Exersaucer. Now she spends time playing in it each day. She bounces around and loves to bang her rattle against the Exersaucer. 

The last weekend in March my parents came to visit. When Payton’s LaLa tried to hold her for the first time she cried for a few minutes but then quickly got used to being around her grandparents. On Friday, Payton got to go to Shrimp N Stuff for the first time and did real well. She sat on the table while we waited for our food and then played with her toys in her car seat while we ate. On Saturday, Charles and my dad worked all day long installing vinyl siding under the house (because Haven was breaking through the old wood siding) and then installing cabinets in our laundry room (which was what I asked for as my birthday present). They worked really hard and both projects look great! While the guys worked, my mom and I enjoyed spending time playing with Payton. We also went to Katie’s Seafood and got fresh shrimp for dinner. 

The last week of March a dark freckle appeared on Payton’s left leg. She now also has about 3 lightly colored freckles on her face. It appears that she is taking after me with the light skin and freckles. Her eyes are still very blue so she may also have my eyes. My eyes are a bluish-green color. 

Payton had been making it through the night without needing to be nursed, but starting the third week of March, she started waking up again around 3 a.m. wanting to be fed. Now that we have started her on solids, I am hoping she will start getting enough calories during the day that she won’t feel she needs to eat in the middle of the night anymore. 

She also has times when she wakes up during the night and all that is required to get her back to sleep is to just stick her pacifier back into her mouth. One night Charles heard her fussing and went into her room to do just that. He was feeling around in her crib in the semi-darkness for the pacifier but couldn’t seem to find it. Then Payton, who had the pacifier in her hand the entire time, held it up for him as if to say, “You lookin’ for this?” He said he laughed despite it being the middle of the night.

Two weeks before turning 6 months old, Payton learned to sit up on her own. On Saturday, April 2, 2011, Payton sat up on our bed for minutes at a time before falling over. This was perfect timing because the following day we took her to take pictures in the bluebonnets in League City. She sat up on her own in the bluebonnets and even smiled a couple of times so we ended up with some cute pictures of her!

This has nothing to do with Payton but the following day, while Payton was asleep in bed for the night, we watched on T.V. as the Aggie women’s basketball team won the national championship in the NCAA tournament. Pretty exciting! I can’t even begin to imagine how a football national championship would feel. I hope it happens in my lifetime, but maybe hoping it will happen in Payton’s lifetime is more reasonable! Haha

On Tuesday, April 5, Payton had her first taste of solid foods. We were having dinner and I had just read that avocado can be a good first food for babies. So I took a piece out of my salad, mashed it up real good, and used my finger to feed her a small amount. She made the worst face and spit it all right back out! 

Payton refuses to nurse when she first wakes up in the morning. I basically have to give her about 30-45 minutes to play before she will even consider eating. I guess she’s like her Daddy, not much of a morning person. The second weekend in April, Charles was participating in the Lone Star Triathlon here in Galveston. The triathlon started at 7 a.m. so my plan was to go there just as soon as Payton woke up. She woke up, I tried to feed her, she refused so we left for the triathlon. We got there and were in time to see Charles bike and run. By then Payton was starting to get hungry so I found a bench off by itself and tried to nurse her under a cover. Well she really started screaming at that point. I took her home and she continued to scream and refused to nurse for about 20 minutes before she calmed down enough to eat. I guess I’m telling this story because it’s been so long since Payton has really cried like that. I’m not sure she’s ever actually been overly hungry and she just didn’t know how to react to it. She is such a good baby that when she does cry like this I feel so bad because I’m not used to it. 

That afternoon Payton attended her first crawfish boil. You’re not a true “Falgout” if you aren’t eating crawfish before the age of 1! Just kidding, she didn’t eat any crawfish but she did have fun visiting for a few minutes before she decided it was getting a little too close to her bedtime. 

The Sunday before Payton turned 6 months old, she learned to jump in her Jenny Jump Up. We’d been putting her in it since she was about 3 months old but she’s always just hung around or used it as a teether. But I noticed she’d been starting to really jump around in her Exercauser so we decided to give it a try. She jumped and jumped, but never smiled so it was a bit hard to tell how much she as enjoying it. I think at the time she was just very focused on jumping because now she jumps and occasionally stops to give us a smile. Watching her jump around in her Jenny Jump Up is the absolute cutest thing!

Payton’s 6 month doctors appointment was Friday, April 15, 2011. Her appointment was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. which is generally around the time that she goes down for her morning nap so I was pretty concerned she would get overly tired during the appointment. Well, unlike her 4 month appointment, she remained in a good mood throughout this appointment. One concern we had was that she hasn’t been babbling, smiling, and laughing very often, but I guess she wanted to prove me wrong because she babbled and smiled throughout the appointment. 

Payton weighed 18 pounds (86th percentile), her height was 27.5 inches (98th percentile), and head circumference of 44 cm (88th percentile). The doctor said the numbers all look really good. Her doctor said you want all the percentiles to be close to each other because that means she is proportional. And they are right on track with how she has been measuring. I did ask if being above average right now has any relation to how big she will be as an adult and she told me that it does not. That generally you can’t get any idea how big a child will turn out until they are at least two years old (and even then it’s not very accurate.) 

Payton met the majority of her 6 month milestones. She scored nearly perfect on the problem solving/ cognitive milestones. Her Daddy thinks this means she’s good at math, but for a 6 month old this means if she drops an object she will pick it back up, she shows an interest in things and tries to get objects that are out of reach, she can pass an object from one hand to another, etc. She also scored average to high on her physical movement and social milestones. The only milestone she scored a little low on was her verbal milestone. Right now she’s just a quiet baby. The doctor had some concern that maybe if she was having trouble hearing it could be affecting her verbal skills. Then when she looked in her ears and saw a lot of wax she thought maybe that could be the issue. She tried to clean Payton’s ears out but Payton kept moving her head around so she wasn’t able to get much wax removed. So for the next several weeks we are supposed to massage Payton’s ears under clean bath water to try to loosen up some of that wax. Honestly though, I can guarantee Payton is not having hearing problems. You can’t tip toe into that baby’s room without waking her up! The doctor also said that her personality right now may just be that she is “quietly content” and I would completely agree with that. 

At the doctor we got the “okay” to start Payton on solid foods. I’m pretty proud that I was able to exclusively breastfeed her for the first six months. I know for many different reasons not everyone is able to breastfeed so I just feel really fortunate that it has come so easy for Payton and I. Although I’m excited about starting her on solids, I also treasure our time together as I continue to nurse her.

The day after Payton turned 6 months old, we fed her rice cereal for the first time. It was actually more like rice cereal soup, as it was mostly breast milk with a little rice cereal in it. My parents were in town visiting so she had an entire audience for her first solid food. Payton made faces and her body would jerk like she was shocked that something was in her mouth, but at the same time she made a “Mmmmmm…..” sound as if she was enjoying it. It was pretty funny! That morning I’m not sure she swallowed much of the cereal at all, but by the afternoon she was helping us put the spoon in her mouth and was definitely eating some of the food. We also tried to give her water out of a sippy cup, but she enjoyed teething on the rubber top more than drinking the water.

This week Payton has gotten even better at eating the rice cereal. She likes to eat quickly and continues to help bring the spoon to her mouth. She also has learned to drink water from the sippy cup and seems to really enjoy it. Earlier in the week I tried to make her some homemade brown rice cereal, but I don’t think I cooked it long enough so it turned out a little too chunky. Next week I will try again since I would like to make a lot of her food for her, but for now we’re feeding her organic brown rice cereal from a box. Next week I also plan on starting her on a homemade vegetable puree (maybe squash).

Payton enjoyed having her LaLa and Grandpa (my parents) here for the weekend. She started a new smile where she scrunches up her nose and smiles. She was especially into smiling this way when spending time with her LaLa. She had fun showing off all her new skills to her grandparents and also going out to eat to Shrimp N Stuff and Benno’s (Cajun seafood). 

This week she has learned two new skills. First, she has learned to roll from her back to her tummy. It has happened twice this week. I’m not sure she intends for it to happen since she doesn’t like lying on her tummy to begin with, but she’ll be playing with a toy and kind of rolling around and then just end up on her tummy. She very quickly rolls herself back over to her back. The other new thing this week is that she’s learned she can open and close her mouth at will. So she has been doing it constantly! When smiling, when playing, when fussy…. she opens and closes her mouth. It’s funny how when they learn something new they just want to keep doing it over and over.

 That’s all for now. Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Easter! Don’t forget the real reason for the holiday. It’s not about the Easter bunny, the candy, and all that…. It’s about God sending His only son to die for our sins and then being raised again. Having a daughter I can NOT even begin to imagine (nor do I want to imagine) what that would be like. How lucky are we to have a God that loves us that much! Happy Easter!